Dem groups amp up Wis. recall effort

Liberal groups aiming to recall Republican state senators in Wisconsin are launching a new ad that sounds a triumphal note, calling their effort “the beginning of a movement.”

The ad, funded by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee and Democracy for America, will begin airing Tuesday in the Green Bay and Milwaukee television markets, reaching the districts of six of the GOP senators against whom recall petition drives have been launched.

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Titled “Recall Momentum,” the ad claims the recall drives have been met by an enthusiastic grassroots response and is gaining steam.

In Green Bay, the ad will reach constituents of Sens. Randy Hopper, Robert Cowles and Luther Olsen, while the Milwaukee edition will be seen in the districts of Sens. Alberta Darling, Glenn Grothman and Mary Lazich.

With upbeat music and images of volunteers with clipboards, the ad features Wisconsinites, many of them government workers, expressing their dismay at the Republicans’ measures to end collective bargaining for many public employees.

“This hurts my family,” a corrections officer who calls himself a lifelong Republican says in the ad.

“People open the door gladly and say … ‘We’ve been waiting for you to come over here and get our signature,’” a retired teacher testifies.

Democratic state Sen. Chris Larson, says, “We’ve been working at the recall efforts against the Republicans. This is the beginning of a movement.”

Democrats and their allies in unions and progressive groups are hoping to use the recalls to possibly flip control of the state Senate, where the GOP holds a three-seat edge. They say they have gathered more than half the signatures they need to trigger recall elections.

Democratic lawmakers, including Larson, fled the state for weeks to protest GOP Gov. Scott Walker’s budget proposal. The Republicans in the state Senate ultimately passed the labor provisions by stripping them from the budget bill. The legislation is now being challenged in court.

Republicans have fired back with recalls and an ad campaign of their own. The Republican State Leadership Committee, the national GOP’s down-ballot campaign arm, last week targeted two Democratic senators with an ad campaign the committee said would run for weeks with a six-figure price tag.

The liberal groups say they are putting more than $100,000 behind their new ad, which is being funded through their Wisconsin local affiliates. The two groups have spent more than half a million dollars on television in Wisconsin to date.

“This new TV ad captures the grassroots magic of the campaign to recall Republican senators,” said Stephanie Taylor, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee. “It also shows that folks in Wisconsin of all ages and political stripes are coming together to reject Republican policies that give millions to big corporations in tax cuts while forcing middle-class families, schools, and communities to pay the price.”